A/N: Let me refresh your memories! In chapter 7, it was revealed that Katashi does indeed have a father. And his name is Masahiro. It was also shown that Katashi hates his father’s guts and especially hates it when Masahiro mentions Katashi’s mother whom Katashi doesn’t know is alive or not. But don’t worry, everyone… all will be clear after a few chapters! XD
Masahiro’s thumb moved over long and soft lashes and trailed down smooth and ivory-like skin. The flames of the melting candles cast shadows all around the small, secluded room. The silence was deafening; not even the red-haired man’s breathing could be heard in the unending silence.
His usually menacing golden eyes appeared phlegmatic as his fingers faintly brushed red locks from the face of a slumbering woman. This particular woman, from a distance, could be seen as dead, but upon closer inspection, she looked as though she’d just been trapped in her own illusory realm for an abnormally large amount of time and would wake up at one point in life.
Hardly anyone could guess that this was actually the case for the woman.
And no one would begin to fathom just who this woman was. Simply because she could appear insignificant to most, but a treasure to many—and majority of those people who loved her were no longer above this earth.
Much like a ghost, Masahiro removed his hand and without so much as a rustle of clothing or a thump of a footstep, he left the room. The only sound that reverberated through the walls was the loud clicking of a lock.
“What the fuck is this?”
Kohana pushed off the ground and landed on the top of the box and crouched to avoid another tentacle that soon pierced the air where her neck should have been.
To her, it was a small fortune that Hidan’s attack was hopelessly slow, thus giving Kohana the chance to capture him in her little ‘torture box’. The first time she used this certain B-rank technique was during the bell test with Kakashi. Of course, the jutsu was totally incomplete. However, with the help of Osamu, she’d been able to increase the size of the box made of earth, strengthened its defense and she was able to freely and easily control the sizes and sharpness of the rocky spikes used to impale her victims. She hardly ever used this jutsu, though.
“What are you bastards doing around this area?” She demanded and grimaced as one of Kakuzu’s sharp tentacles grazed her thigh, but did not mind it as she was busy dodging Kakuzu’s advances.
Just as Hidan was about to answer from inside the box, he yelled another string of obscenities as the sound of a rather thick spike pierced through a certain body part. While this was both irritating and amusing in Kohana’s part, Hidan’s pain was also distracting.
She hissed a curse of her own as a dozen of tentacles threatened to wrap themselves around her torso. Thankfully, she was given some time to execute a Kawarimi no Jutsu.
“Answer me or I’ll blow you up.” She threatened and formed another series of hand seals just as Kakuzu thrust both of his arms forward to release even more tentacles. With great difficulty, she dodged the tentacles and to do the same for the extra ones, she jumped even harder than already intended.
Finally parallel to the ground, Kohana twisted her body and spun in the air, her arms stretched forward as she spun quite like a top.
“Katon: Rasen-en no Ryuu! (Fire Release: Helix Flame Dragons Technique)” A/N: Once again, my horrible naming sense strikes. Thanks a lot, dad.
She could faintly remember the second time she used this was against Haku. After a few improvements, Kohana changed its name.
The long, thick bodies of the dragons purely made out of white-hot flames emerged from Kohana’s fists and came spiraling down on Hidan and Kakuzu. As the dragons hit the earth, the sound created was vaguely reminiscent to that of one dragon’s. However, seeing such creatures didn’t exactly exist, the sound was simply depicted as one of destruction.
Before Kohana could descend, she summoned her vulture: Hitoshi.
“Wow…” the bird muttered. Below them looked like a small hell in one single area. Flames licked the and the purpose was to purely dance around to burn, burn, burn.
“Wow indeed…” Kohana huffed as she slumped down on Hitoshi’s back as both watched the flames begin to slowly dissipate. “Sorry for calling you out just so I wouldn’t get burned to death.”
“I had nothing better to do anyway. Where do you wanna go?”
“As much as I want to leave, I gotta take care of these two.” Her eyes narrowed when a large torrent of water extinguished the flames. This made Hitoshi all the more disagreeable.
“What the hell? It’s not your mission!” Hitoshi angrily squawked. He flapped his wings even harder to prove his point. “Besides, I think you’ve killed one of them already!”
Kohana shook her head. “Of course I haven’t; are you stupid or something? Oh yeah, you are a bird after all.”
“What kind of a statement is that?”
The red head sighed. “Whatever. Get me down.”
“Fine… just don’t waste your chakra.”
Kohana nodded and jumped down from Hitoshi just as the bird poofed away.
However, before Kohana’s toes could so much as touch the ground, the outrageous sound of wild laughter drowned her thoughts as Hidan entered her vision. Seconds later, Kohana saw him draw his arms behind him and swing.
She gasped from the contact of metal pressing firmly against her side and yelped as she was thrown more than a dozen strides from where she was supposed to land.
Kohana was sent tumbling many strides away from where she’d meant to land. Vaguely, she was aware that she had landed on her head, the side of her foot, shoulders and other parts that she couldn’t name all due to just how overwhelming the situation was. The pain that shot out everywhere was inescapable as she was thrown about like a rag doll, as though disposed of or perhaps like all the anger had been taken out on her body. No sooner did she slide across the ground, the friction between the gravelly surface of the ground and the side of her face being the cause behind her slow stop.
Kakuzu simply watched the bruised and bloodied girl on the floor until his eyes narrowed. Hidan looked thoroughly confused and downright aggravated at the blood they both expected to splatter on at least one of the blades’ surfaces. As he looked back and forth at the scythe and the red-haired teenager, he immediately realized that there was something off about the girl’s obi.
He watched as Hidan growled and threw the Sanjin no Ōgama. The metal cable extended from its coil and the scythe came from above, threatening to actually kill Kohana as it stretched forward to the maximum distance.
Kohana tried to stand, ignoring the burns from her scraped skin, the throbbing of the would-be bruises all over her body and the all-out agony from her sprained extremities. However, she could only manage to stand on her knee which, most unfortunately, was already bloody and burning with pain.
Just when her heart began to pound even more heavily in her ears, she was hazily aware of the ground disappearing beneath her and a very much identifiable weightlessness in her body despite the heaviness around her torso.
The tips of the three blades that descended from above and glinted from the sunlight now came crashing down on an empty space.
She could hear a voice yell something incomprehensible, but before she could try to make sense of everything that was happening, a hand pressed itself against her back and an arm came underneath her knees until Kohana eventually realized that she was being lifted.
The feeling she received from the strong pair of arms was unfamiliar, and she couldn’t quite indentify the voice either, or what it was saying. The ringing in her ears was ceaseless—as was the pounding of her aching head. Thanks to this, she remembered that she’d landed on her head at least once.
Kohana’s palms pressed firmly against the cup in her hands. The harsh heat from the tea stung her hands, but she didn’t mind it because her anger could do much more damage to her than the tea itself.
“Why did you take me back, Kiba? I haven’t even started my mission.” Her voice was quiet and devoid of any kind of emotion. That was only because Kohana did well to hide it.
Kiba frowned. He was slightly incensed as to why Kohana was being ungrateful to him after he’d saved her life, but he knew this wasn’t really the case. He could have cured her wounds, but he didn’t exactly know how to. To top it all off, her left ankle suffered more damage than her head did—that alone was saying something.
The reason why Kohana was hardly able to register what happened to her right after she was fatally injured due to her own momentum was because her head suffered one dangerously heavy hit.
It had been discovered that Kohana’s obi contained her weights. These protected her from the hit that would have undoubtedly hit her. However, since the weights absorbed the attack, there was a large dent on it and the pressure it inflicted on Kohana caused a few broken ribs.
“Do you even know how injured you are?” Kiba demanded quietly.
Kohana pursed her lips and focused her gaze at the ceiling. Her eyes, however hooded by her own eyelashes, flashed with a dangerous kind of fury. Kiba wasn’t sure whether it was directed at him or herself, but upon remembering just who Kohana was, he was fairly sure that it was the latter.
Kiba’s frown deepened.
“I know what you’re going to say, Kiba. I could have seen that scythe and dodged it. Why wasn’t I able to… y’know what I’m saying?”
“We both know that you couldn’t have, idiot. You’re human. Have you actually forgotten something like that? Or has the power gone to your head?”
When Kohana didn’t say anything, Kiba quickly changed the subject. If they continued this, he’d probably snap at her. “Anyway, Hokage-sama will visit you after she’s done with her meeting.”
The red head nodded, but she didn’t seem as eager to stop talking about what happened as Kiba was.
“Why were you there, anyway?”
Kiba averted his gaze. “I was tasked to tail you during the mission… just in case something happened. You left early, and when I was going to go after you, I saw Shikamaru, Izumo-san, Kotetsu-san and Asuma-sensei. Apparently, they were after those Akatsuki members and it was just my luck… sorta… that you just happened to be there.”
“I see…”
The Inuzuka stared at Kohana for a while, waiting for her to say anything else. When he was sure she had no such intent so say anything else, he stood up.
“I’m leaving. Feel better.” He said and turned around, only to feel a tug from the back of his jacket. When he turned around, Kohana immediately let her hand fall to her side.
“Th-Thanks…”
Kiba scratched the back of his neck and turned around to walk away once again. He never thought that he’d experience getting thanked by Kohana, of all people. Although, it wasn’t like it mattered much…
“’S nothing.” He muttered and without another word, left.
Finally left alone, Kohana sighed and placed her tea on the desk near her. It hurt to have to stretch her arm a little due to the scrapes that covered it, but she didn’t want to drink… nor did she want to hurt her hands even more by getting them scalded.
With another heavy sigh, she lifted her left hand to touch the left side of her face. It was covered in one large gauze and a small part of her was thankful that the damage didn’t affect her eye nor her entire cheek. However, the skin of her ear was also affected but it was good that the outward portion was scratched and the inside of her ear was perfectly fine.
Despite her small relief, her ankle was a different story.
She didn’t want to look at it at all, but she was told that the sprain was in between the first and second degree, which was simply a more gentle way of saying that it would take her around two to four or five weeks of rest and recovery.
Kohana didn’t like that one bit. She had a mission to take care of and just the thought of one week of no training was enough to make her want to hurl.
“Still, I don’t really have much of a choice,” she said to herself. Soon enough, her thoughts strayed from her self-pity.
‘I wonder how they’re dealing with those two.’ She wondered the same time she also thought of Katashi. Just what was he doing at this moment?
“You didn’t have to, y’know?”
Naruto found himself unable to smile as he took in his sister’s appearance. When he’d barged in just a few moments ago with a small bouquet of flowers and two cups of ramen, Kohana had been smiling at him as if nothing was wrong in the world.
Taking in his strained expression, Kohana smiled slightly. “Wanna help me sit up so we could eat some ramen?”
The whiskered-nin blinked before nodding distractedly. “R-Right…” He murmured and leaned in, slipping his hand beneath Kohana’s back as he took her hand with the other. The wince from Kohana’s lips surprised him, but he kept himself focused on helping her sit up.
“Kiba told me about it… why didn’t you just leave?” Naruto demanded quietly. He painfully watched the red head exhale deeply. She’d been holding her breath from the pain.
His suspicions were confirmed when she let out a shaky, “Just because…”
Naruto grimaced. “Because what?”
When she turned her head, he bit his lip. He did so even harder as he watched her lips form into a smile he didn’t want to see her make in the state she was in.
“I know I’m not enough to stop them, but… I don’t know… I’m not really sure myself. Actually, you know how I love our village and you? I just thought… I have to know why they’re here. So I tried interrogating them. Unfortunately, those two were… pretty unique.”
He noticed that far-off look in her eyes. They were empty, and that gave him an idea of just how she’d been spending her time alone in the hospital room.
“Are you mad at me?” Kohana asked her brother who, she noticed, was standing quite rigidly.
Naruto noticed the look in her eyes.
“Just a little.” He said honestly and took the cup of ramen from the small table next to the hospital bed and gave it to Kohana, along with a pair of chopsticks.
Kohana muttered a small thanks before patting the space next to her. After a short pause, Naruto acquiesced.
“How’s your training?”
“It’s going pretty well.”
“You’re not hurt, are you?”
Kohana chuckled slightly at the grumpy look on Naruto’s face as he slurped his own ramen.
“Of course I’m not! What kind of a question is that?”
She laughed. “Sorry, sorry. Anyway, I’d tell you to go back to training, but… she trailed off slightly, looking at the window. “It’s… raining… I don’t want you to get sick.” Speaking of which, she was beginning to feel something in her stomach. The feeling was totally unpleasant to her, and she somehow knew it was because of the rain.
“Do you not want me to be here?”
Kohana’s head snapped to Naruto’s direction. “No! That’s not it. I love that you went out of your way to visit me. It’s just, I don’t want to get in the way of your training.”
Naruto’s eye twitched. “Shouldn’t you have thought about that before?”
Laughing sheepishly, she scratched the back of her head. “Yeah, I guess you’re right… but… I’m not kidding. I want you to focus on your training. After all, we need this to bring Sasuke back.”
“You don’t have to force yourself to say that…”
After saying this, Naruto immediately wished that he could just punch himself over and over right then and there. He could tell that Kohana was hurt at what she thought he was insinuating, but he didn’t mean that at all!
“Nee-chan, I didn’t mean anything else when I said that—“
Kohana smiled, but it wasn’t a smile that Naruto thought she could make. “It’s okay, I know you didn't. I’m just thinking that maybe what you could have meant was right. I don’t need to force myself for the sake of taking Sasuke back, but at the same time, I kind of… want to even if it hurts.”
To Naruto’s surprise as well, Kohana’s eyes widened at what she’d just said.
“I-I…”
“No need to get all defensive,” Naruto said with a small laugh. “Ever since that day, I knew that your hatred for Sasuke isn’t completely real. He’s really important to Sakura-chan, Kakashi-sensei and I, but you knew him the most. Even though that kinda means that you have more of a reason to hate him, that’s not it, right? Since you’ve had so many more memories with him than Sakura-chan and I, it’s kind of obvious that you still want him back just as much as we do. You miss him just as much too, if not more.”
After a while, the two siblings stared at each other, waiting for Kohana to finish sewing her thoughts back together. It wasn’t long before Kohana’s shoulders shook from suppressed laughter.
“Geez, how’d it get to Sasuke all of a sudden?”
Naruto raised an eyebrow, as though he’d never revealed her feelings to her in the first place. “Well, you started it.”
Kohana averted her gaze, a smile once again playing on her lips. “I dug my own grave, huh. I didn’t even realize that I was feeling that way. If you’d said that before the talk I had with Osamu-sensei, I wouldn’t have had to storm out of Shushuya in a rage. And as expected, you’re so much more straightforward.”
Naruto didn’t say anything after that. He thought that Kohana wanted to say something else, and he was right.
“Just in case, on our next mission to get Sasuke back, if I’m acting weird, don’t think it’s because you put those words into my mouth just now. Now that I think about it, the more it makes sense to me. It sucks, sure, but it takes a little bit of weight off my shoulders. And seeing as my ribs are cracked, that’s a great relief!” She said these all while staring at the window and listening as well to the sound of raindrops hitting its clear surface.
"See? I told you I can read you now!" Naruto joked, but of course, he was speaking the truth and nothing but. At this, Kohana smiled an nodded, but as she stared and stared, she began to remember something.
“The color of the sky… that’s the color I saw the morning after Sasuke left. Was it really like that?”
Naruto was silent for a moment for the sake of preparing Kohana for his answer.
“No… it was clear and bright, like always. But when I fought with Sasuke… was the sky like that too?”
Kohana laughed. “I’m pretty sure it was… mm, haha! Now we’re talking about the sky.”
“Your ramen’s getting cold; are you going to eat that?”
Kohana grinned, slapping Naruto’s shoulder with the back of her hand. “Of course I am, idiot!”
A/N: Sorry if this chapter is not what you expected. I have mixed feelings about it too. Oh, I only edited the first half, btw. :D
Hehe, I like the chapter title.
I was planning on using the BGM on the right since Crimson Thread, but I never seemed to get the chance. Wait, I think I might've used it... oh, whatevs